To The Ones Who Walked Out Of My Life, Thank You

one thing I learned about life, it’s that people leave; no matter how many times they promised to stay. It’s the ones that you least expect who walk away; regardless of how many times they said they’ll always be there for you. The people who swore they’d never hurt you are the ones who end up hurting you the most. As someone who’s had a fair share of people leave, I was always quick to blame myself when anyone walked out of my life. People leaving made me angry. It made me bitter. However, I slowly started to realize that if anything, I should be grateful for the people who walked left because they are the reason I am who I am today.

I am a strong believer that people enter our lives for a reason. Whether that reason is a blessing or lesson, and to the ones who walked away you definitely proved to me that you were a lesson. You taught me that not everyone who enters our life is meant to stay. You allowed me to see that people who are intended to stay in our life will never leave. You leaving only made more room for those people. The people who matter. The people who actually want to stay and the people who are meant to be in my life. So thank you for leaving, because it showed me you were never meant to be apart of my life.

Thank you for leaving because you gave me a chance to become all the things you said I could not be. I forced myself to grow, even though you made me feel that being myself wasn’t enough; that I had to be more. Thank you, because now I see myself with pride, that I am enough.

Thank you for leaving because in a sense, you leaving forced me to find myself. I eventually found myself gaining strength in my decisions, no longer weighed down by your criticism. Criticism I once considered to be constructive, when in reality it put me down.

Thank you for leaving because you showed me that I don’t need a one-sided kind of love in my life. That there are people in this world who can only love you on their terms- under their control. That they continue loving you just as long as you remain pleasing them, because sometimes no matter what you do for someone it is never enough.

So to the ones who walked out of my life, this is me showing you that I damn well deserve better. I deserve someone who’d do the same for me as I’d do for them. This is me putting my happiness first. I will not let the pain you caused me make me bitter or hateful. Trust me when I say, karma sneaks up on people like you when you least expect it. So to the ones who walked out of my life, this is me forgiving you.